


The Sand's Melody

by metawasteoftime



Series: Ye Olde Fics [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Piano, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-04 21:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12779865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metawasteoftime/pseuds/metawasteoftime
Summary: Learning the piano is like learning to get along with others. To an impatient musically impaired Gaara, both sound impossible.





	The Sand's Melody

**Author's Note:**

> One day, I noticed one of Gaara's trashed toys in his flashbacks was a toy piano and this fic was born.

"Learning to deal with people correctly is like learning the piano, and learning it well," the music instructor tells Gaara as he sets the small toy piano down in the corner of the crowded play room. He taps the piano lightly with a finger. "Your father desires you to develop your mind in any way possible, so you may become an even greater power."

Gaara doesn't hear his words. He sees only those condemning eyes. But he is only three when he first sees the piano and the music instructor, who soon vanishes, and so the memory soon becomes vague and distant.

At age four, he can remember the piano. He remembers the smooth feel of the keys, the wooden lid, and the tinny music that came from the tiny box. Most of all, he can recall how his sand had sliced the miniature grand in half.

It doesn't matter. Practicing was frustrating. Practicing alone, nearly impossible.

~~~

Gaara is six now. Another grand piano, a much larger version, sits in Yashamaru's home. Gaara visits there often. His playing is nothing to be proud of, but it begs attention since only a human child could make such... _melodic_ noise.

Yashamaru decides to talk to the Kazekage about lessons.

As the lessons continue, Gaara develops a faint desire for belonging toward his uncle's home. In the future, though, he'll wonder if it was Yashamaru that had kindled these wishes during these times or the poignant piano pieces he is made to pick out.

In this instant, it doesn't matter. The lessons are frustrating, and Yashamaru's piano -- the piano Gaara's mother had sat at to play for her first two children -- has to be scrapped for kindling.

~~~

Gaara is twelve. He hasn't touched another piano in years. Ever since Yashamaru's death, he hasn't felt the need. His one art and musical taste is the screams of the dying. This is how he deals with people, and in his eyes it is correct, even beautiful.

But after fighting the loud-mouthed blond kid, who always reminded Gaara beforehand of a grisly mistake in a piano piece, Gaara can't help but think of black painted mahogany wood and ivory keys. He remembers his uncle's explanation of love closest, but from afar he recalls someone comparing learning to deal with people to learning to play the piano skillfully, a point he has never reached.

But what if the man was wrong? What if someone -- a monster even -- who couldn't learn a delicate instrument like the piano on an expert level, could learn to live with people, and learn well?


End file.
